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Monday, January 14, 2013

Here's what's been going on

As soon as I finished my four-week consulting job, I had to
get ready for my husband’s hip replacement surgery. That is get my head in gear
for the stress of waiting for results, the driving back and forth to the
hospital, and then caring for him once he got home.

Legs and feet all ready for surgery

We’re at the third stage now. The surgery went very well –
it only lasted one hour – and he was released from the hospital after a
two-night stay. I not only brought him home, I also brought a cold and
compression machine to aid in his healing process. Plus we are proud owners of
a brand-new walker.

The first day he was feeling pretty puny, but once he
started to take his prescription strength ibuprofen, he was back to his feisty
self. So feisty that he abandoned his walker sometime during his first
night home – while I was sleeping –
and began hobbling around on his own two feet. Needless to say I had to insist
on the walker the next morning. It enables him to walk straight and tall at a regular clip, and I don’t have
to fear he’ll fall and either ruin his new hip or break something else. Well, he behaves during the day, but still exerts his
independence when he’s up during the night. This morning I called him a brat.

So I must change the subject.

Our niece and nephew sent us these darling photos of their
children (our greats) to cheer us up. I can’t believe how grownup Anna looks. Those long legs are to die for. And Ian is very proud to have lost his first tooth.

National Association of Memoir Writers

About Me

Madeline SharplesI’ve worked most of my professional life as a technical writer, grant writer, and proposal process manager and began writing poetry, essays, and creative non-fiction when my oldest son, Paul, was diagnosed as manic depressive. I continued writing as a way to heal since his death by suicide in 1999. My memoir, "Leaving the Hall Light On," first released on Mother's Day 2011 in hard cover, is about living with my son's bipolar disorder and surviving his suicide. My publisher, Dream of Things, is launching a paperback edition in July 2012 and an eBook in August 2012. I also co-edited Volumes 1 and 2 of "The Great American Poetry Show," a poetry anthology, and wrote the poems for two books of photography, "The Emerging Goddess" and "Intimacy." Besides having many poems published in print and online magazines, I write regularly for several websites: Naturally Savvy, PsychAlive, Open to Hope,and Journeys Through Grief and occasionally for The Huffington Post. I maintain two blogs: Choices and at Red Room.